TV Show Hoax

A Dutch television show purporting to feature a dying woman deciding who will receive one of her kidney is a hoax, presenters said Friday.

The program, which drew criticism from across Europe over the past view days.

"Horribly macabre and to me humanly incomprehensible," said Hubert Hüppe, the Christian Democratic Union's spokesperson for bioethics issues, of the show. "Thank God something like this isn't possible under German law."

"When you see how a show practically lets you give the thumbs up or down on someone's life via text message all it does is damage people's trust in medicine, which can save lives," he added.

Germans in favor, but not donating

Organ donation in Germany is voluntary and requires potential donors to carry a donor ID. An independent authority then applies a set of medical criteria to decide who receives a donor's organs, which harvesting and transplantation strictly separated from each other.

Some 80 percent of all Germans say they are in favor of organ transplants, but only 15 people per one million Germans actually donate their organs, according to the German Organ Transplant Foundation (DSO).

"If a person dies of a stroke for example, the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas can all be harvested," said Eckhard Nagel, a member of Germany's Ethics Council, ahead of Germany's national Organ Donation Day on June 2. "In such a case, organ donation could save six lives -- or even seven if the liver can be shared."

Automatic acceptance?

With approximately 12,000 people on transplant waiting lists in Germany -- and an average of three dying each day -- DSO officials hope increasing awareness among Germans will lead to more people choosing to donate their organs.

"We believe it is actually an ethical duty for every citizen to consider and decide whether he or she would like to be an organ donor or not," Nagel said.

The Ethics Council, which advises Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in ethical questions, last month suggested organ donation become automatic unless the deceased or their relatives say otherwise.

Even confronted with a lack of viable organs available for donation, that's a step politicians said goes too far.

"It's along the lines of 'saying nothing means agreement,'" Hüppe said. "But to me it seems to be the case that there are other reasons, organizational or even financial, in the process that have more of an effect on harvesting organs than patients' objection."

Raising awareness

Some doctors have also pointed out that a raised consciousness of organ donation among medical professionals and hospitals is required in Germany.

"Organ donation is a very difficult subject for hospitals," said Hans Lilie, head of the federal doctors' board's permanent committee for organ transplantation. "The individual hospital goes through a lot of work and doesn't have anything to give its own patients. I think we need more of a commitment from doctors to make an added effort for patients on waiting lists."

Nagel, who is taking part in negotiations at the World Health Organization and United Nations to push for common organ donation policies, said the emotional results transplants can have need to be made clear to doctors and potential donors.

"When a 3-year-old boy who received a liver transplant and nine months ago couldn't walk wins an egg race after a long hospital stay, that's something that moves you," he said.